The Froot Loops NPS Case Study (Part 3) Qual to the Rescue!
< Part 2: Methodology and Quantitative Results
Qualitative data will not be ignored
On June 8, 2017, I approached attendees of the UXPA 2017 conference in Toronto, Canada one at a time and asked if they would like to try Candian Birthday Cake Froot Loops (BCFLs). If they agreed I would have them eat a few and ask them the standard NPS question:
“How likely or unlikely would you be to recommend Birthday Cake Froot Loops to a friend or colleague? With 0 being not at all likely and 10 being extremely likely.”
The final NPS score based on 51 respondents was a -64. This is not a good score. That would be the extent of the findings if this were strictly a survey. But being a qualitative researcher, I was compelled to find out more. I wanted to know why they gave that score. If people did not want to try the BCFLs I wanted to find out why not. I observed and recorded facial expressions and behavior when they tasted the BCFLs. I also wanted to record their reactions to the NPS question itself. Ultimately the qualitative data delivered the most insights.

Reasons for refusal
Special diets
Of the 61 people I approached 10 refused to try the BCFLs. Half of these refusals were due to diet restrictions, mostly gluten intolerance. They all assumed gluten was present. I do not recall any checking the ingredients to confirm this.
Contempt for sugary cereals
The other half of the refusals were from people who hated sugary cereals due to their super sweet flavor and general unhealthiness. (They gave the best quotes.)
- “I would rather die. Hearing ‘froot loop’ triggered the memory of the smell and texture.”
- “Get those things the hell away from me.”
- “Hell no!”
Dislike of BCFLS
Hate the taste, smell, and/or aftertaste
The most frequent comments by participants who gave the BCFLs an NPS score of 0–3 was that they did not like the taste, smell, and/or aftertaste. Many of these participants physically grimaced when they ate the cereal. Several complained that the flavor lingered and grabbed water to rinse it away.
- “WHY? Tastes like chemicals. It doesn’t taste like food.”
- “Oh man… Oh my god. That is vile.”
- “That’s awful. Honestly these are obnoxious. It smells like a scented candle.”
- “It tastes like I just threw up. F*ck.”
- “Smell this.” (gives box to friend) “Does that smell bad?”
- (a few minutes after eating) “I’ve still got the aftertaste… It’s still there.” (rinses out mouth)
Lack of health benefits
There were many comments around how unhealthy sugary cereals are. Many participants did not like the idea of anyone having birthday cake for breakfast.
- “It’s sugar. I wouldn’t recommend. I won’t eat it.” (looks at ingredients) “Sugar.”
- “I can’t imagine that there is any health benefit.”
- “I wouldn’t recommend to children. It’s horrific.”
Bizarre concept
Birthday Cake Froot Loops cereal was created to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary. This whole concept was seen as strange. Birthday cake is not a fruit. This makes it an odd flavor for Froot Loops. Some commented that it didn’t taste like cake at all. Several participants snarked that the box said “prepared in Canada” instead of “made” or “cooked.” This added to the artificial “not food” quality.

- “Isn’t it supposed to be fruit?”
- “What does ‘Prepared in Canada’ mean?”
- “I would prefer actual birthday cake. Not this.”

Positives
Stoners
The most frequent positive comment was that “stoners would like it.” Participants said that they would like to eat BCFLs when they were stoned and/or they would recommend them to friends who were stoners.
- “Depends on the context of the cereal usage. Would eat this when I am stoned.”
- “Disgusting. Would recommend to my stoner friends.”
- “It’s a good stoner cereal. It tastes like it looks.”
- “I don’t hate it. It’s like strawberry perfume… This would be good when you are stoned.”
Nostalgia, nihilism & nationalism
There were several nostalgic comments about loving sugary cereals as a child or wanting to eat them but not being allowed to. Some of the younger participants took nihilistic pleasure in how artificial and unhealthy the BCFLs are. Some of the Canadian participants liked BCFLs due to a sense of patriotism in celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday.
- “I would make them into a froot loops necklace (but not eat the necklace).”
- “Nobody likes fake cake flavor like I do.”
- “It’s like cheap strawberry shortcake.” (Note: this was a positive for them.)
- “Yes, because it’s Canada’s 150th anniversary.”
Doesn’t taste like soap
The most memorable comments were from a participant who was recovering from chemotherapy. The treatments were making most foods taste like soap to them. The audacious sweetness of BCFLs broke through to their delight.
“Smells like vanilla. I am recovering from chemo and everything tastes like soap. This tastes like sugar. I get the whole birthday cake thing.”

Recommendations
Based on the qualitative feedback we can offer a few recommendations to Kellogg.
- Create a gluten-free option
- Make it obvious to consumers when gluten is included
- Think of ways to make the cereal healthier (or at least seem healthier) to better market to parents
- Reduce the aftertaste
- Appeal to childhood nostalgia
Dig deeper into the stoner demographic
The larger recommendation would be to do more research with stoners. I would recommend stoner interviews to explore the viability of marketing sugary cereal directly to them. A potential exercise would be to give them BCFLs in a new box concept of “anti-Wheaties” with Phish over a psychedelic background. This could also appeal to the nihilists.
I was not expecting that BCFLs would appeal to stoners. This is one of the biggest strengths of qualitative research: discovering something completely unexpected. This is much more difficult to do with surveys because you don’t know what you don’t know.
NPS question comments
In part 1 we identified a number of questions around NPS. Two of those questions were explored in the qualitative comments and observed behavior.
Is the 0 to 10 scale difficult for respondents to rate?
It took a little longer than a normal 5 or 7-point scale. I don’t think it was because of the scale though. I think it was because of the question.
Is the NPS question awkward and difficult to answer?
Yes. Most participants had difficulty answering the question because they were trying to define “friend or colleague.” There were a lot answers that said that they would or would not recommend BCFLs to a specific group. Many participants would recommend it to kids (but not their children). There is ambiguity in the NPS question as to whom we are talking about recommending to.
- “10 if I was a kid.”
- “I would recommend if it was for my 6 year old but not for my older daughters.”
- “I wouldn’t recommend it to my wife.”
Some would try and qualify their answer by adding some extra details. This clouds the answers from its original intent.
- “I would recommend if I knew they liked sugary cereal. It’s not for me.”
- “Maybe I would recommend with milk.”
Then there is the questions of 1) how often an individual recommends things and 2) when it is appropriate. Many adults don’t recommend breakfast cereals.
- “I don’t recommend cereals.”
- “Why would I recommend cereal to a colleague?”
Conclusion
I am ambivalent about NPS. I would recommend it (whoa that is meta) if it is being used frequently in your organization. If it is a standard metric, it is good to use for comparative purposes. But I would always ask “why” for more insight.
I find that with most scale questions I learn more from the “why” than from the scale scores. In this example I gained one insight from NPS and a slew of them from the qualitative data.
If NPS is not being used at your org I would choose a set of 7-point scale questions which measure different aspects of customer/user satisfaction. Always gather qualitative data for deeper insights.
FYI BCFLs are not the only birthday cake flavored “food.”

Part 2: Methodology and Quantitative Results
Read more:
- Therese Fessenden - Nielsen Norman Group
Net Promoter Score: What a Customer-Relations Metric Can Tell You About Your User Experience
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/nps-ux/ - Dan G. - Cerealously
Review: Canadian Birthday Cake Froot Loops
http://www.cerealously.net/review-canadian-birthday-cake-froot-loops-cereal - Frederick Reichheld - Harvard Business Review
The One Number You Need to Grow
https://hbr.org/2003/12/the-one-number-you-need-to-grow - Jeff Sauro - MeasuringU
10 Things to Know About Net Promoter Scores and the User Experience
https://measuringu.com/nps-ux/ - Jared Spool - UIE
Net Promoter Measures The Wrong Thing (or Why I Don’t Like United Airlines)
https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2011/12/12/net-promoter-measures-the-wrong-thing-or-why-i-don%E2%80%99t-like-united-airlines/
